Who is the Foodie? It doesn’t really matter. Bacon is god. Wine cures anything. If you believe those two facts, then we’re going to get on fine. This means you have discovered the power of food to make life better. This knowledge is imperative to the art of living well.Thai Coconut Soup.
Posted in Recipes, Side orders on 02. Aug, 2010
I have many fond memories of traveling in Thailand. I’ve been lucky enough to go twice, spending two months there in total. If you’ve been, and I mean actually went instead of just staying in a resort in Phuket, you’ll surely remember the three things that stuck out most for me: how easy it is to get around the country, how tasty the food is and how friendly the people are. For an example of each, there’s the one time I caught a bus that felt as if the wheels were pointing in four different directions and had no suspension. After rocking left to right for half an hour I thought best to spare myself as an accidental sacrifice and jumped off. No problem, the local policeman simply gave me a ride to the next destination. Once there, I tucked into some street food at the night market while watching some locals do strange aerobics on a lawn. The aerobics was shocking, but the street food was awesome. Fish balls, curries, sweet coffee in a bag, coconut pancakes, chicken skewers, pineapple sticks and lots more. And then there’s friendliness, which I witnessed regularly. Mostly 20-30 minutes after each meal when I had to bang on some poor stranger’s door to ask if I could make use of their squat toilet. Knee-breakers, those things. But how good is the food there? Well, for every great meal I had in Thailand, I endured minor torture afterwards, yet somehow, the food made it all worthwhile. Really, go, you’ll love it.
On a completely separate note, here’s a recipe for the easiest soup in the world, which happens to be Thai.
Ingredients (Serves 4)
3x 340ml tins coconut milk
2 large chicken breasts, sliced
4 Tbsp fish sauce
5 kaffir lime leaves, crushed
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated or crushed
4 portions vermicelli noodles
2 red chillies, chopped lengthways
2 Tbsp red curry paste
2 small sticks lemongrass, hard layer removed and finely chopped
3 Tbsp palm or brown sugar
1 handful fresh coriander, loosely picked
Peanut or cooking oil
Preparation
First put the noodles in a bowl of boiling water while you prepare the soup. Heat a splash of peanut oil in a saucepan over medium-heat. Add the curry paste and fry for 30 seconds. Then add the chicken, ginger and lemongrass and stir over the heat for 10-seconds before adding half the coconut milk, the kaffir lime leaves and fish sauce. Let simmer for 15-minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Stir in the lemon juice and sugar. Drain the noodles and add them to the saucepan along with the remaining cocount milk. Keep over the heat until warm again. Serve in bowls and top with chopped chili and coriander.
Quick, easy & spicy? WIN.
Hey !
I have lived in Thailand for just on ten years, and still have not tired of the fantastic repertoire of dishes that make up Thai cuisine. Needless to say, I often cook Thai, as it is so easy, particularly if you have been to Thailand and know what its supposed to taste like.
I would like to make some suggestions on how you can improve this dish to give it greater dimension and also make it even more authentic.
You may have noticed the Thais always cook with a little pot of chicken stock bubbling in the background. This is usually the base they use to flavour almost all their foods, particularly soups and curries. Either make a quick stock by boiling up bits of chicken, some onion and chives with half a stock cube for about 20 mins, or if you don’t have enough time, use a cube of chicken stock on its own, diluted in enough water so that it is not too salty or artificial. About a cup of strong stock should do nicely for this soup, Add it at the same time you do the ginger and lemongrass.
Lemongrass is used for fragrance, and sometimes as decoration. To get the best out of the lemongrass, peel the outer layer as suggested, then, with the back of a chefs knife, pound the stem, starting with the root and ending with the thinner end. Add to the soup whole and discard once the soup is done.
Lime juice is not normally cooked, as it would loose its potency. So, instead, it is added right the end, just before serving. Slice the lime in half remove the pips with a fork. Then insert the fork all the way into it from the flesh end and squeeze out over the finished soup. Do one half and taste, add more if you think it needs it. Doing it this way, you end up with truely fresh lemon juice in the dish, and even a bit of the juice in the zest. This method will improve the flavour of the soup by giving it that extra bit of tang Thai food is so famous for…
AFTERTHOUGHT:
If you are interested in Thai food, there is a new Book by David Thompson, released a month or two ago. Unlike his first landmark book on Thai food which dealt with the more exotic components of the cuisine, his latest book deal with everyday food you find in plastic chair restaurants and in push carts along bustling streets.
It is a mammoth book, and its a little pricey, but between the two books, it covers the largest collection of authentic thai recipes from someone who is considered, even by the Thais, to be the only real Western authority on Thai food.
Such a yummy recipe and very easy to make. Pierre’s comments make sense and can easily be incorporated to make the dish even better.